An 'unpardonable provocation': North Korea warns of attack if US flies B-52 bombers again

NORTH Korea has today warned that it will take a military action should the United States deploy B-52 strategic bombers again on the peninsula.

North Korea has threatened to attack if the US fly over the peninsula again

The secretive state condemned training flights by the nuclear-capable US B-52 bombers over the Korean peninsula as an “unpardonable provocation” and threatened military action if they continue.

"We are keeping close tabs on the activity of the B-52 strategic bomber," a spokesperson for the North's foreign ministry said, according to its official news agency KCNA.

The Pentagon has confirmed that at least one B-52 has flown over South Korea in recent weeks as part of joint South Korea-US military exercises that Pyongyang has denounced as rehearsals for invasion.

A B-52 bomber of the U.S. Air Force is seen flying over Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul

We are keeping close tabs on the activity of the B-52 strategic bomber

Spokesperson for North Korea's foreign ministry

Military tensions on the peninsula are soaring towards breaking point, with North Korea — angered by UN sanctions imposed after its nuclear test last month — threatening a second Korean War backed by nuclear weapons.

In a slew of angry rhetoric in response to the U.N. vote, the North threatened to carry out a pre-emptive nuclear attack on the United States and South Korea and said it was nullifying the armistice agreement that stopped the Korean War in 1953.

Earlier this week, a North Korean propaganda site posted a mock-up image of the White House caught in the panoramic sight of a North Korean long-range missile.

The foreign ministry said Pyongyang was closely watching the ongoing exercises and vowed a “strong military counteraction, should the strategic bomber make such a sortie to the peninsula again”.

Seoul said the B-52 flights demonstrate the strength of the U.S.-South Korea alliance.

"As North Korea threatened to attack South Korea with nuclear weapons, the exercise involving B-52s is meaningful as it shows U.S. commitment to provide its nuclear umbrella on the Korean Peninsula," South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said in a briefing, according to a report from the Yonhap news agency.